International migration is a global phenomenon that is growing in scope, complexity and impact. Human migration is now at an all-time high, accounting for 240 million persons and is shaping world events and fuelling political and public debates. People have been migrating since the beginning of human history to escape natural catastrophes, wars and dictatorships or to seek out a better life for themselves and their families. These flows have led to the progressive and balanced mixing of people that has generally been productive, leading to cultural and economic exchanges that have benefited both the native and migrating populations and have built nations. The rate of migration however, has increased dramatically since the 1970s, tripling over this time. Forced migration, driven primarily by conflicts, social injustice and global inequities, has also increased during this same time, resulting in a quarter of all international migrants who are refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced persons many with health disparities. Migrant populations are heterogeneous and have a broad range of health needs -- their presence raises several medical, ethical, economic, social and cultural issues for both migrants and receiving health systems.

Keynote and Plenary Speakers

Dr. Kamran Abbasi

Dr. Kamran Abbasi is a physician, journalist, editor, and broadcaster. He is the British Medical Journal’s (BMJ) Executive Editor for Content, and is leading the Journal's strategic growth internationally, both digitally and in print. In other roles he has worked as a Chief Executive and Medical Director of medical education and health information companies, and as a freelance consultant, writer, and editor. Dr Abbasi has written on a broad range of topics in medicine and international health, including a major series on the World Bank and its role in global health. He is an honorary senior lecturer in the department of primary care and public health at Imperial College, London.

Mohammed Abdiker

Mr. Mohammed Abdiker serves as the Director of the Department of Operations and Emergencies at the Headquarters of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Based at IOM Headquarters in Geneva, the Department leads the response and coordination of all humanitarian and post crisis stabilization programming. Mr. Abdiker began his rich professional career with IOM in 1996, working on the United States Refugee Resettlement and Cultural Orientation programmes in Kenya. Since then, he has accumulated over 19 years of field experience on a range of migration issues in crisis and post crisis settings for IOM, which he brings to the role of Director. This includes serving as Chief of Mission in Sri Lanka (2007- 2010); the Chief of Mission in Zimbabwe (2003-2007); as well as covering the return and resettlement of refugees for IOM offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, and West Africa. He has also focused extensively on IOM’s Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration programming.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Castelli

After a period of time spent in Sub-Saharan Africa working for the World Health Organization in the field of diarrheal diseases and infant vaccinations, Prof. Dr. Francesco Castelli became Professor of Infectious Diseases, and Director of the Post-Graduate School of Tropical Medicine at the University of Brescia. At the University of Brescia, Prof. Castelli also acts as the Director of the Department of Mother and Child Care and Medical Bio-Technologies. He is also the head of the Tropical Unit at the Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

Dr. Ranieri Guerra

Dr. Ranieri Guerra has been appointed Assistant Director-General for Special Initiatives of the WHO and is responsible for the Migration portfolio. A physician from Italy, he has more than 30 years of public health experience. From 2014-2018 he served as Director General for Preventive Health and Chief Medical Officer of the Italian Ministry of Health. He has published extensively on humanitarian and emergency operations and health reform in developing and transitional countries. He also has worked with several multilateral organizations and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in these settings.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs

Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs is an economist and is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. He is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and a professor of health policy and management at Columbia's School of Public Health. Since 2017, he has served as special adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals adopted at a UN summit meeting in September 2015. He held the same position under the previous UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and prior to 2016 held a similar advisory position related to the earlier Millennium Development Goals. He was first appointed special adviser to the UN Secretary-General in 2002 during the term of Kofi Annan.

Dr. Paul Spiegel

Dr. Paul Spiegel is a physician by training and is internationally recognized for his research on preventing and responding to complex humanitarian emergencies. Before becoming Center for Humanitarian Health Director at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Speigel was the deputy director of the Division of Programme Management and Support Services for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Prior to joining the UN in 2002, he worked as a medical epidemiologist in the International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has also worked as a medical coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde in refugee emergencies, as well as a consultant for numerous organizations.

Dr. Patricia F. Walker

Dr. Patricia F. Walker has been a clinician and medical educator focused on refugee and immigrant health care since 1979. She is internationally recognized for her work in defining the body of knowledge that encompasses refugee and immigrant health care. From 2002 to 2004, she chaired the State of Minnesota Immigrant Health Task Force, a group of 70 experts who developed best practices in care for refugees and immigrants in Minnesota that are being shared internationally. Dr. Walker has published multiple clinical articles, invited commentaries and book chapters on refugee and immigrant health and co-edited a 2007 medical textbook, Immigrant Medicine.